For those who have not yet found the Cotswold Wildlife Park it is a beautiful Victorian Manor House set in 160 acres of parkland and gardens.  It houses a varied and fascinating collection of animals from all over the world ranging from pigs, sheep and ducks through to giraffes, rhino’s and zebras.

There is plenty of fun to be had by all ages, you can take it easy with a ride around the park on the train or expend lots of energy in the adventure playground.  Our group arrived just in time to see the penguin feeding.  The penguins live in the Walled Garden area of the Park which also houses the hilarious meercats, otters and mongooses and is home to the Madagascar exhibit.  This is a walk through exhibit of the many species from the spectacular Island all roaming free and very interested in the human species!  As well as ten species of Lemur, the park is also home to Madagascan Tree Boas, Radiated Tortoise, Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches and the bizarre Madagascan Giant Jumping Rat.

All this intrepid exploring certainly worked up an appetite and luckily the restaurant and picnic area is conveniently situated next to the adventure playground.  The children certainly enjoyed lunch on the move whilst climbing the tree-house, riding the carousel, tackling the space net and lots of fun activities designed to wear them out.

After a tour around the park on the train, we knew where to find the camels, lions, warty pigs, giraffes, pythons, leopards and lots more.

When asked what they enjoyed the most, Emily liked the baby camel that was only 1 day old, Anna liked the meercats because they were small and cute, Olivia liked the train and doing a Royal wave, George and Anna’s Daddy Richard, loved the fact it was all organised for him and Kim from Welfare’s favourite part was the cream tea!

Claire Jordan